


The Day the Moon Exploded

by Ruuger



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Episode: s08e07 Kill The Moon, Future Fic, Gen, Season/Series 08
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-30
Updated: 2017-10-30
Packaged: 2019-01-26 20:21:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12565428
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruuger/pseuds/Ruuger
Summary: Today was the day she'd been waiting for almost forty years.





	The Day the Moon Exploded

**Author's Note:**

  * For [triplesalto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/triplesalto/gifts).



"Madam President, are you _absolutely_ sure?"

The aide was standing at the doorway of the Yellow Oval Room, his hand hovering - perhaps subconsciously - above the lightswitch. Courtney gave him a stern look.

"Yes. You can leave now."

The aide hesitated, just for a moment, before closing the door. 

Once alone, Courtney walked to the window overlooking the Hillary Clinton Presidential Gardens. The glass felt cool against her skin as she pressed her forehead to the window and closed her eyes. She'd given the order to keep the lights on, of course - going against the advice of her cabinet and the senate. She could imagine the whispered meetings going at that very moment; could almost hear the words that they'd use to describe her. Tired. Emotional. Hysterical. They didn't know what she knew.

She opened her eyes again and watched as the lights in the city went out one at a time. She'd known it would happen, but the knowledge did nothing to lessen her disappointment. 

With the absence of ambient light the night sky seemed even darker than usual, the moon hanging above the city like... Well. Like a giant egg.

During the last forty years she'd often found herself looking up at the night sky, wondering if it had all really happened. Did the caretaker at the Coal Hill School really have a police box that could travel anywhere in time and space, and did she once visit the moon with him? 

The last time she'd seen him was when he'd travelled back in time make sure that she wasn't late from school. Or at least he'd told her that he'd travelled back in time to make sure that she wasn't late for school. She couldn't actually remember the being late part, only waking up to a shout of "You! School! Now!" with his skeletal figure towering over her bed. Of course, that had been a weird day in every respect, what with the whole thing with that substitute teacher called Blinovich. Which, now that she thought about it, had been the event that had set on her the strange path that had eventually lead to her becoming the President of United States.

There was a knock on the door, but Courtney ignored it, her eyes still fixed on the moon. Today was the day she'd been waiting for almost forty years. Today was the day she'd find out whether or not everything that she believed in had been just a product of an overactive imagination of a teenager with ADD. Today she would find out if the moon really was an egg. 

It had been her mantra all these years. During the debates, in the campaign trail, whenever she felt unsure of herself, she'd kept repeating it to herself. The moon is an egg. 

Suddenly there was a sound behind her, a wheezing, worbling drone that made her heart skip a beat and her throat tighten. She couldn't help laughing as she twirled around to see the familiar blue box materialize in the corner of the room. The moon really was an egg.

The police box looked exactly the same as the first time she'd seen it in the caretaker's room, and as the doors opened, she briefly wondered if the Doctor would have Miss Oswald with him, or perhaps even Courtney herself. She felt her heart sink when instead of the grumpy, grey-haired caretaker she'd once known, out walked a young blonde woman.

The woman smiled as she saw her. "Hello Courtney."

"Where's the Doctor? Did something happen to him?"

The woman frowned, looking confused, and then rolled her eyes. "Oh, right, I never told you about this whole..." She made a vague gesture. "...regeneration thing. Timelords don't die, we change faces." She paused, her frown deepening. "I mean, yes, we can and do die, but most of the time, when we-" She sighed. "Let's start this again." She held out her hand and smiled. "Hello, I'm the Doctor."

For the first time Courtney looked the woman in the eye, and there was something - she would not have been able to say what, if asked - that was so familiar that she knew that there was no-one else in the universe that the woman could be, except the Doctor. Her Doctor. 

She closed the distance between them and took the Doctor's hand, but instead of shaking it, she pulled the Doctor into a hug. The Doctor was now shorter than she was, and, well, a woman, and of course she'd never actually hugged him before (although she had once obtained much amusement with a strategically placed 'Free hugs' sign), but as Courtney held her, she suddenly felt like she was back in year ten. A small voice at the back of her mind tried to remind her that her behaviour was not appropriate for the most powerful woman in the world, but she ignored it. What was the point of being a grown-up if you couldn't be childish sometimes? She was quite certain it was he who'd once said it to her.

"Has it happened already?" The Doctor finally said, breaking the silence.

Courtney reluctantly let go of her. "Not yet. But soon."

She lead the Doctor to the Truman Balcony. Above them, the moon was already starting to break up, a spiderweb of dark cracks slowly spreading across its luminous surface. Even with the spectacle taking place above her, Courtney couldn't help stealing a glance at the Doctor standing next to her. She was leaning to the railing, inexplicably cradling a cup of tea between her hands. When she noticed Courtney looking, she turned to her and grinned.

"The moon was an egg. Isn't that just fantastic."

Courtney just smiled, and turned her eyes back towards the moon, knowing that on a beach somewhere halfway across the world there was another Courtney Woods standing next to another Doctor, looking at the same moon. 

They watched in silence as the moon shattered into pieces, releasing the alien creature within it. As it disappeared into the dark emptiness of space, Courtney resisted the urge to wave at it. The Doctor didn't, and kept waving long after the creature was gone.

"Thank you for coming back," Courtney said.

There was a look on the Doctor's face that she couldn't quite decipher. "I'm working on trying to get better at it," she replied.

There was another knock on the door, and Courtney felt a sudden pang of sadness at the knowledge that in just a few moments she'd have go back to her real life where the moon was just a moon. 

"I should probably go," the Doctor said, but didn't move, still looking at the night sky. Courtney looked up, at the moon was still an egg, but not the same one. She thought it was probably a metaphor of something, but she couldn't figure out what. Miss Oswald would probably have known.

"You once told me that I wasn't special," she finally said, turning to the Doctor.

The Doctor avoided her eyes, finishing her tea before she spoke. "You aren't. Not any more special than any other human being is special. Which makes you pretty special."

Courtney couldn't help laughing. "Is that what you really meant when said it?"

The Doctor shrugged. "Could be. That's the problem with regenerating. Skills tend to come and go with the faces. My last one - not so good with the whole talking to people thing." She turned to Courtney and smiled. "Hell of a guitarist, though."

"And a silver fox," Courtney added.

The Doctor grinned, preening. "Thank you!"

The knocking at the door was becoming more insistent, and Courtney knew that she couldn't ignore it much longer. As they went back inside she wanted to ask the Doctor if she'd ever see her again, but didn't. She wanted to hold on to the hope that she would.

When she came to the doors to the Tardis the Doctor paused, and looked back at Courtney, as if in an invitation.

Courtney shook her head.

"No thanks. I'm busy enough being a disruptive influence here."

The Doctor nodded, and then gave Courtney one last smile before closing the doors.

As the police box disappeared from view, Courtney walked to the door of the Oval room and opened it.

Her aide was standing right outside, his fist raised to knock on the door again. He took a step back, startled. "Ma'am, the moon, did you-"

Courtney didn't let him finish. "Call NASA. Tell them I want to speak to Captain Lundvik as soon as she comes back." She cast one more glance towards the now empty corner of the room where the blue box had been. "There is something we need to talk about."


End file.
